Addressing Food and Livelihood Security in the Hills and Mountains of Nepal by Strengthening Farmers Seed System: Options During a Conflict Situation
Varietal contribution to total increased world food output has been estimated to be >50％. Seed is the first link in the food chain and seed-based technologies offer the easiest and cheapest options for increasing crop productivity to farmers. Maize is the staple crop for >12 million people living in the hills and mountains of Nepal where about 80％ of the maize area is concentrated. Because of the difficult terrain, lack of proper transport and communication, farmers have limited access to seeds of new maize varieties, and thus, seed replacement rate is <1％. This is one of the major reasons for low maize productivity, as evidenced by a big gap between the experimental yield and the farmers harvest. The situation is further worsened by an on-going conflict, and as a result conventional methods of varietal testing and seed supply in these areas are less feasible. If the widespread use of modern maize varieties is to be achieved, it is necessary to strengthen the farmers seed system by offering choices for varieties to match the specific niches through participatory approaches. The best option would be informal research and development (IRD) for quickly identifying the preferred varieties and then linking with the community-based seed production and distribution (CBSPD) system. IRD is a very rapid and cost effective method of enhancing adoption by strengthening farmers seed system. The paper discusses the mechanism of reaching to resource-poor farmers in conflict-affected areas in the hills and mountains of Nepal to address farmers food and livelihood security issues by strengthening the local seed systems.
Informal research and development Community-based seed production and distribution Farmers seed system Conflict
Krishna D. Joshi
CAZS-Natural Resources, CIMMYT, P. O. Box 5186, Kathmandu, Nepal
国际会议
第九届亚洲玉米大会(the Ninth Asian Regional Maize Workshop)
北京
英文
312-315
2005-09-05（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）